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What a great book! A massive coffee table type book, huge and heavy, in a beautifully inked hard cover. It details the rise of Marvel comics from when they were called Timely comics in 1939 to when they were Atlas comics in 1951 all the way through till they were Marvel comics in 1963. The book chronicles the company up to 2007, very easy to read, with lots of good artwork of old covers etc. Also it has the obligatory foreward by Stan Lee, and Afterword by the current editor in chief, Joe Quesada. I recognise some of the comics I used to buy as a kid in the mid to late 70's, this book is more americanised so some of the comics took a year, sometimes 2 years to get to these shores and even changed names, like in 1972 Marvel started on a series of comics called The Tomb Of Dracula, which I remember getting in my country ( UK ) as Dracula Lives in 1974. They did the same with a series based on Planet Of The Apes, which I also collected in the same year. It is an essential reference to a company that has entertained millions throughout its lifetime, now continuing to entertain through comics, graphic novels and films, as the $1.5 billion world wide box office takings for the Avengers show. On the back cover there is a slip containing 2 prints of the box cover artwork, one just inked, one coloured and signed by the colourist, Justin Ponsor. This is an expensive book, but the way it is put together, the history and the prints make this an essential purchase for marvel fans, or comic fans in general.